Aldric stows his mace and looks around at his allies. "Are any of you injured?" He sets about examining his own inconsequential scratches and bruises.
"I've just got a scratch, I'll be fine," Sturdy states matter of factly as he peers down the hallway at the far end of the room and listens carefully.
Aglaeca wipes the blood off his hands absent mindedly onto his leathers as he moves forward to help investigate the altar. After smashing and sweeping anything he can off the altar, Aglaeca will look for hidden switches or compartments. Looking up at everyone Aglaeca somewhat bashfully says " Its good to know that there are still people out there willing to do the right thing... Thank You"
Aglaeca will help others search the altar
Perception Check 13 to aid another
The hallway fades into total darkness about fifteen to twenty feet inward, you do not see or hear any movement within. It looks like it was excavated and not something that originally existed in the construction of this basement.
At the alter, it's nothing spectacular. There are no gadgets, switches or levers, There are a couple volumes of devotions to Shar.
The room itself makes it very clear that Bairwin was not without resources. It is very dark still, but what you currently can notice about it is that the room is capable of accommodating many more than currently occupy the room.
"I don't think we should tarry here long. If there is anyone down that tunnel, they may have been alerted to our presence."
Makes sense, lets go
Aglaeca seems positively helpful, sticking near the middle of the group. During the short rest, Aglaeca pulls out a torch from his backpack, an ...eternal ... torch.
"A bit of respite would do us all good. The darkness can wait for us to take a breath. It appears that this town has a dark cancer growing in it."
As far as you can tell, nothing is moving inside that opening. It is safe for now.
Sturdy inspects the first few feet of the tunnel Dungeoneering Check, 1d20+2=15
Breathing hard a little after the melee, Karn takes a moment to collect himself, cleaning his blade and retrieving any dagger thrown, before he starts rifling through the belongings of their now dead opponents. Taking anything of value or use, he will pile it all together for everyone to look through.
After that is completed, Karn says, "I am ready to go when everyone else is."
"Can any of you tell if any of our fallen enemies' weapons contain any magic"
"Can any of you tell if any of our fallen enemies' weapons contain any magic"
"It shouldn't be too hard to find out." Quinn then begins to search the bodies and examines their weapons.
Aglaeca without looking at the equipment, says "Chances are bairwin's staff has something to it, it was spitting out darkness and other things in his hands after all"
In searching the bodies you only find the obvious and mundane items, black robes, 2 scythes, 4 short swords and Bairwin's quarterstaff. There is also a note in Bairwin's posession.
It reads:
Your latest shipment of supplies should meet the keep’s
needs until the ritual is finished, which should be any day
now. I will send word if we require anything else. Rest
assured that you will be rewarded by for your actions on
behalf of Shar once Shadraxil is released from his prison.
—Kalarel
Sturdy
It seems obvious that the tunnel is versed, but there are no obvious signs that it has been used recently. At least not from where you are standing.
"Shadraxil....Shadraxil..." Verjack ponders the name.
Verjack
"Unless there is anything else anyone needs to see here, I recommend we explore that tunnel. We may not get another opportunity to investigate here."
"There are no obvious signs that the tunnel has been traversed recently. Let us move on to foil this obviously evil plot."
"Gentlemen, I recognize the name in that note. It is the name of a great wyrm supposely slain by Cormyrians in the third century of Dale Recogning. This may yet be a worthy cause........Enough history, let us be on our way."
Taking one of the black robes Karn says, "You never know when one of these might come in handy," as he moves to the front and slips into the shadows as the group heads into the tunnel.
The adventurers move forward, stepping over the rubble from the opening of this crudely crafted tunnel. It is pitch black, thankfully the torchlight allows you to see enough to move through it safely. The walls curve sharply around solid stone. Eventually you come to an opening which houses a Cart with supply crates stacked nearby, a track leading down a tunnel and a Ladder that leads upwards to a hatch.
All of this is on first inspection of the area.
This tunnel may lead right out of town, which was how Bairwin was getting his goods in without anyone knowing. There was a name on the crates 'Grimmerzhul Trading Post' if it means anything to any of you.
Aglaeca checks the crates here to see if there are the same markings on them. Looking up at the hatch, he says to sturdy,
"Sturdy, You say the strange fellow who was meeting bairwin just disappeared on you? As if he dropped down a hole maybe This may be his hole. I think we should follow the tunnel and destroy what we can find there. Then we can come back and have more words with Ninaran, I don't trust her either. Then Finally we have to find where this Kalarel is holed up, although I have an idea about that as well, sadly. Hopefully after this, the town will be free from misguided miscreants, althought it is impossible to tell. The Altar room was built to hold quite a few people.
Aldric looks up at the hatch. "Does anyone think they would be able to see where that hatch comes out without being seen by whoever's on the other side?"
The crates in the room do in fact say Grimmerzhul Trading Post. These crates in particular look old and like they have been here for some time. The cart next to them is flat and about the size of a pallet so it's safe to say that your assumptions about them being moved through the tunnels is correct.
The hatch leading upward doesn't seem to have any light coming from it but it is also nighttime, so you assume that if it does lead to somewhere outside that maybe it wouldn't have much light anyway.
Lets poke up through the hatch, probably sturdy first, and see if we can catch any more cultists in the act... We can then go down the tunnel without worrying about our rear then, that's tactical right?Aglaeca sheepishly asks.
"I'll check the hatch." Sturdy quietly climbs the ladder and listens closely before opening it.
If nothing is heard then Sturdy will very slowly open the hatch and peer through.
Listening intently at the top of the ladder Sturdy hears nothing going on outside. With a loud creak the hatch opens and once he looks around he sees that the opening comes out between a few trees and about 30 feet in front of him is a small meadow containing a wooden cabin.
There doesn't seem to be any activity or light coming from it.
Sturdy climbs back down and explains what he saw to the rest. "Should we clear the rest of this tunnel before checking out the cabin?"
I'd be more inclined to clear out the cabin and then continue on the tunnel, we don't know how far it goes, it obviously has already absconded the city walls, so the nine hells knows when we'll get a chance to come back for the cottage.
"The cabin should be our first stop." Verjack sits back watching the exchange trying to gauge who is the leader of the little group.
The Tiefling crawls up threw the hatch, his thick tail surprisingly not hampering him in the least.
Looking at the cabin the teifling asks everyone else, Anyone got some Oil and an actual torch, we could just burn it down and nab the cultists as they come out"
"Setting the cabin ablaze could be a signal flare for any other cultists in the area. I say we ambush them."
You generally need something to lure the cultists out for an ambush to work no? Lets all get topside and find an appropiate place to hide then set the house on fire, Hopefully we can kill two birds with one stone.
"Or perhaps we could storm in and catch them by susprise. I am still concerned that if we were to burn the cabin, we would attract unwanted attention, as well as destroy any evidence of their past deeds, some of which may be critical to our mission."
Listening to the two bickering about which idea was more sensible, Karn does the only thing that HE sees as the sensible tactic and sneaks his way towards a window to sneak a peek at what might be inside. Doing an excellent job of remaining unseen, Karn practically melts into the shadows of the trees as he approaches the house and uses his keen elven gifted vision to see what might be inside.
Karn certainly is stealthy as he moves forward to the cabin, however once he gets a glimpse inside the payoff seems to be much less.
Nothing is moving inside, it is dark and from what he can tell it's just some sort of residence. The room looked upon looks to be a living room, with a big chair to the right, a desk and counter straight forward. In the corner of his eye Karn catches something but comes to see that it is nothing more than a mounted deer head.
Aglaeca shrugs "You can make the lion a mouse but can you make the mouse a lion... Where is Karn anyway "
L
There's gotta be a reason that the tunnel detours here Karn thinks to himself as his curiosity gets the better of him, working his way to the back entrance, he silently removes his thief's tools and picks a few of the tools, in case the door is locked.
The lock on the door clicks as if Karn owned the place and the door slides open with a steady grace, revealing the main room to the rogue.
Karn will cross into the cabin's interior and begin by making sure it is completely safe before calling the others in. He will quietly check the room for obvious dangers and traps before approaching the door that he assumes leads to the bedroom.
Verjack hangs back. "Well, let's see how many B&Es we can do in one day."
When Karn comes to the bedroom, plants his hand on the handle and slowly slides the door open, He is amazed to find that the house is entirely empty. The doorway he stands in leads to a small bedroom with a fairly large size bed covered with a couple animal furs. The room itself is rather empty, the building as a whole looks very much like a hunters lodge.
Aldric slowly approaches to try to get a sense of what is going on, moving to L10. He whispers to Sturdy, "Do you see anything? Has he gone and gotten himself killed?"
Looking through the doorway into the empty chamber, Aldric decides to go in for a look around. He looks around the great room for any documents or similar items of interest that might indicate what this cabin was used for.